Despite disadvantages in talent, depth and resources, Josh Harris and Wake Forest have stayed a step ahead of FSU in recent years

This has been a big week for the ACC, highlighted by the addition of the most valuable free agent prize in college sports. But the euphoria over adding Notre Dame to the league’s ranks has the potential to fade quickly, depending on the result of one enormously important football game Saturday.

And it’s not a key nonconference matchup that could potentially enhance the ACC’s reputation outside its ever-widening geographic footprint.

Rather, it’s the seemingly benign Atlantic Division showdown between Wake Forest and Florida State in Tallahassee.

It’s a game that, going strictly by the numbers, shouldn’t be much of a game at all.

The Seminoles are ranked No. 5 in the country after overwhelming their first two opponents by a combined score of 124-3 while the Deacons, picked to finish fourth in the division, have barely squeaked by – winning their two games by a grand total of just four points.

FSU features a star-studded veteran lineup that includes no fewer than eight players recognized on preseason award watch lists while Wake comes in with a rebuilding offensive line and an injury-riddled defense that will be without its best player, nose tackle Nikita Whitlock.

It’s no wonder that the oddsmakers have established the Seminoles as a 27½-point favorite.

Of course, they were also favored each of the last six times they’ve gone up against the Deacons. On four of those occasions, including twice in Tallahassee and again last season in Winston-Salem, Wake managed to defy those odds and win the game outright.

It’s a dominance coach Jim Grobe is at a loss to explain.

“I think there are just some teams that you match up with a little better once in a while and some teams that you’re a little more motivated to play against,” Grobe said. “I think with the number of kids that we have on our roster from Florida we’ve been able to get pretty excited to play the ‘Noles.”

On the flip side, there’s a good chance those same ‘Noles have had a hard time getting motivated to play the usually less-than-intimidating Deacons. Only time will tell if coach Jimbo Fisher’s team will learn from its mistakes and show up more focused this time around.

“We’re going to have to bring our ‘A’ game,” Fisher said earlier this week.

The ACC desperately needs E.J. Manuel, left, and the Seminoles to be more focused against Wake Forest than in the past

They better if they’re really serious about showing the world that they’re “back” among the nation’s elite. But there’s so much more at stake here than just one team’s championship hopes.

Because for the ACC to start gaining the respect it so desperately craves, it needs one of its marquee teams to break out of the pack and finally live up to its preseason expectations.

With all due respect to fellow frontrunners Virginia Tech and Clemson, whose win two weeks ago at the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Classic has already been devalued because Auburn’s slow start, nothing gets the national media’s attention faster than FSU chopping down opponents the way it did during its run of nine straight ACC championships – with a pair of national titles thrown in for good measure.

Even Grobe acknowledged that it would be in league’s best interest for his team to stop being such a thorn in the Seminoles’ side. At the same time, he added that the Deacons aren’t about to start laying down and taking one for the team anytime soon.

“I think one of the issues for the top teams is that getting through an entire year in this league without getting upset is hard,” Grobe said at the ACC’s preseason kickoff event in Greensboro this summer. “But somebody needs to do it.”

Ranked as high as it is, with a spot in the BCS Championship Game there for the taking if it runs the table, no one in the league has a better chance of being that somebody than FSU this season.

For that to happen, the Seminoles must first figure out a way to make the most of its advantages in talent, depth and resources, and start beating teams it’s supposed to beat.